Apple Mac vs PC in Creative Industries

It’s a debate that’s been raging for years and will likely continue to do so. Is Apple Mac better than PC or is PC better than Apple Mac? Both sides of this debate have extremely loyal users to fight their corner, but we want to know is there ever going to be a winner? Or is it completely down to personal preference?

Apple’s latest range of products

Market share is heavily weighted in PC’s favour but in creative industries like graphic design, Apple Mac is the usual choice of hardware and in this post, we’re exploring why:

Tradition

Photoshop and the Adobe Creative Suite started on the Apple Mac, so naturally, they became the go-to machine for designers lured in by superior software. Since then, however, something stuck and designers have always favoured Apple Mac over PC not only for the quality but also the tradition and reputation the brand has built up over the years in the creative sphere.

Because of this brand loyalty, software companies will, more often than not, target design tools and software towards Apple Macs. Apple puts a strong focus on fonts and colours, especially between screen and print files. Apple is ‘hyper’ aware of their brand reputation and always go out of their way to maintain their signature allure as a ‘designer’s computer’ and nothing seems set to change that.

User Experience

The operating system (OS) is one of the fundamental differences between Macs and PCs. Generally speaking, Apple Macs run OS X software and PCs run Windows software. Once a user becomes comfortable with a type of software and interface, they usually don’t want to change. Which is often cited as a reason why designers continue to use Macs. When Windows 8 was launched, PCs saw a dip in popularity, but they have managed to rebuild their reputation following the launch of Windows 10. An excellent salvaging operation that renewed PC user’s faith in the brand after the trainwreck that was Windows 8.

Security

Macs are known to fall victim to substantially fewer attacks than Windows PCs. However, especially with the rise of ransomware, it must be said that no matter what your operating system or machine, using anti-virus software, is always a must for any user as hackers are constantly adapting and becoming smarter across all platforms.

Streamlined Connection

Apple connects its Mac and iOS devices seamlessly, so it’s easy to share everything between devices, even to the point where you can start an email on one and finish it on another. Although you can sync your mobile devices with a Windows PC, the convenience and smart integration software present in Apple devices is a great selling point.

Quality of the Build

People working in creative industries like; Graphic designers, Architects, Artists, Editors etc… rely on a high level of accuracy to ensure the quality of their work isn’t hindered. Product reputation is a big factor in purchasing decisions. Apple typically build their Macs to the highest quality standards, paying attention to every detail in both functionality and design. The finished product is not only often elegant and stylish on the outside but on the inside as well.

There’s no denying that you can build your own PC which may be more powerful, or buy a ready-built PC with just as great a spec, but there is something about the Apple Desktop that is inherently cool and perfect for a creative office trying to project a brand message onto both its customers and employees.

In order to achieve such a slim and sleek design, Apple has compromised the possibility of custom upgrades, which can almost always be done with PC. A PC allows you to customise your machine whenever you like. Most creatives not only want but also have to have access to cutting-edge technology and keep their devices up to date. That is why our Hardsoft UK leasing service is ideal for Apple Mac users, as you can upgrade their device after 24 months like you would a mobile phone contract.

Customer Support

Year after year, Apple continues to rank as one of the best customer service providers amongst big brands. If you ever have a problem or query about your device, you have the comfort of knowing Apple is there online, over the telephone, or in store for support. At Hardsoft UK, along with every computer leased, you’ll receive a three-year warranty complete with over the phone technical support. So, no matter what or when there will be someone available to help you!

Overall Satisfaction

Overall user satisfaction is ultimately one of the defining factors when it comes to whether you will stick with a brand in the future. The price of the product needs to provide value for money for the user and it’s not often we hear of Apple Mac users regretting their purchase.

The overall verdict is that creative industries generally side with Apple Mac models. There will be exceptions to this, of course, but Apple Mac just pip PCs to the post in the creative world.

Here at Hardsoft UK we offer rent, hire, and leasing for a range of Apple Mac and PC models. We’re a one-stop shop for all of your IT leasing needs. The beauty of it is that you can be at the forefront of the IT industry with the latest models when taking advantage of our leasing service. Perfect for both start-ups and well-established business.

Being fully Apple Authorised, HardSoft are able to centrally register the Macs and iPads we lease to customers with Apple, which helps them with the management of their assets. Apple have recently relaunched their Device Enrolment Programme (DEP) as the new Apple Business Manager. This is, in essence, the enterprise version of Apple School Manager, which gives companies a web-based portal for IT managers to deploy and manage Apple devices across the workplace. Apple Business Manager lets you buy content and configure automatic device enrollment in your Mobile Device Management (MDM) solution.

Apple Business Manager

Apple says that this service offers businesses sleek device enrolment, controls for assigning privileges and settings, as well as the ability to purchase apps and books, all from one central location. Signing up for Apple Business Manager as part of your lease means that you can deploy Macs, iPads and other iOS devices which you have leased across a business or school. You can then supervise from a distance any iOS devices owned by your business but used by your staff, whether they’re office based or work remotely.

This level of management allows you to add restrictions, such as turning off integral games and apps, as well as blocking certain apps from being downloaded to the device. With Business Manager large-scale deployments of iPad and Mac are seamless. Your devices are configured through a Mobile Device Management (MDM) solution, we use the Airwatch MDM software solution – which costs £1.00 per week extra on a three-year lease, users are then guided through the activation process.

Through the Device Enrollment Program, businesses can choose to supervise corporate-owned iOS devices over the air and the supervision of this provides a higher level of device management customising configurations and features specific to your school or business.

What can I do with Apple Business Manager?

Configuring Business Manager allows you a number of options:

Force the device to enroll with an MDM such as AirWatch

Select which MDM group devices should be a part of initially

Disable users ability to un-enroll from the MDM manually

Place device in supervised mode

Restrict device from pairing with macOS computers

Disable sending diagnostics information to Apple

Display personalised contact information for support

In addition, you can add a Mobile Device Management (MDM) profile for each device. The MDM allows the centralised control and deployment of software. Using an MDM gives you the ability to configure access to corporate services, account setting, and even which apps can be used. This removes the need to deploy your devices manually and means that your staff can get working as soon as the device is turned on. There is no need to have someone from your IT team physically set up each device individually. This is only offered by Apple Authorised Sellers or direct from the Apple Store. HardSoft has provided rollouts to such organisations as the Marie Curie cancer charity, as well as Dee Valley Water.

You can lease the iPad Pro 10.5-inch with Mobile Device Managment bundle from HardSoft, on a three-year lease from £7.50 per week + VAT. The Benefits of Apple Business Manager and an MDM solution are massive but if you want to know more take a look at the FAQs below, or give our sales team a call on 020 7111 1643 and they will be happy to talk you through why Business Manager and MDM make sense for your business or school.

FAQ’s on the Apple Business Manager

Does HardSoft manage the whole process? Not entirely. HardSoft role in the device enrolment process consists of order management functions, such as providing device serial numbers or IMEI numbers, creating a customer’s Customer ID, providing our Reseller ID, and a few other order details. Further actions in the programme — such as claiming and assigning devices in the website and or to MDM servers — are the responsibility of the customer.

What resellers, distributors or carriers are eligible to support Device enrolment for their customers? Any Apple Authorised Reseller such as HardSoft, or Telecoms carrier, such as O2, EE is eligible to participate in the programme.

Can adding devices into the Business Manager resolve issues with the new law General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)? No, though it is the first stage in adding a Mobile Device Management Solution such as Airwatch that would conform. The new GDPR law states you must implement “appropriate technical and organisational measures to ensure a level of security appropriate to the risk, including…encryption of personal data” (Article 32, Security of processing). In the event of a data breach, the organisation is not required to inform individuals of the breach if measures that “render the personal data unintelligible” were in place, including encryption (Article 34, Communication of a personal data breach to the data subject). GDPR is a concern to all Companies with the potential for heavy fines. Mobile devices such as iPads ‘roaming;’ the country with Data on are a hole in an IT security set up that needs addressing.

What customers are eligible to sign up for the Business Manager? Business Manager is available to qualifying businesses. Generally, a client with 10 or more mobile devices feels the benefit. The service of Apple School Manager is available to state, independent, primary and secondary schools, colleges and eligible educational organisations…

What does the customer need to provide to Apple to enrol devices? We require the customer’s Customer ID (Apple will provide this to the customer after on line registration), the HardSoft ID, the device IDs of the devices sold (serial numbers or IMEI numbers), and a few details about the order, such as delivery date.

Does HardSoft specify in the terms of sale that the device must be removed from Business Manager when the customer no longer owns, it? No but the Apple Business Manager terms agreed to by the customer at sign up require a customer to remove devices that they no longer own. Be aware that any devices lost, stolen will need removing.

Is there a charge to participate in Apple Business Manager? Apple does not charge customers to participate in the service or Apple School Manager scheme. An MDM solution such as Airwatch would be at extra cost.

Can HardSoft help by enrolling devices into Business Manager? Unfortunately no. End users must enrol in the service or Apple School Manager and accept the terms and conditions themselves. Customers who request HardSoft to perform additional integration or management services (such as an MDM) can latterly create an admin account within their portal or Apple School Manager portal to add and manage these services on the customers behalf.

Could customers create their own API? Organisations should be able to develop functional integration with Apple’s device enrolment APIs using two or three developers in about 10 weeks. Alternatively, an off the shelf solution should be considered. HardSoft offer VMWare Airwatch.

What makes leasing from HardSoft so different from all the other leasing companies out there? We believe that it’s the holistic approach we take to our business, we care about our customers and the experience they have with us so we do our best to make sure that experience is a beneficial and helpful as possible. We also listen to our customers and try to develop new offerings that fit with what they’re looking for.

For example, we have recently launched our new HardSoft Creative Club. The Creative Club gives our customers access to a pool of kit for short-term hire. That’s the kit they need when they need it for short-term projects, for just £6 per week plus VAT. The kit in the pool has a daily points value and customers receive 350 points annually to use to hire the extra kit they need and at the time when they need it. All delivered and collected as part of their membership. It’s short-term computer hire that’s cheap and flexible, exactly what many of our customers have been asking for.

HardSoft Loyalty Program Gift Grid

We have also launched a Loyalty Rewards Scheme. To say thank you to our returning customers for their continued business with HardSoft, and to show how much we value it we now have a Loyalty Reward Program and now offer these customers a free gift with new leases – see the gift grid.

Small Things = A Big Difference

HardSoft also offers lots of those small things that all add up to make a big HardSoft difference, such as:

35 years of trading experienceWe have been trading since 1984 and our team know the nuts and bolts of leasing and can help with your financing choice.

4,000 clients with £30M of leasesWe have over 4,000 customers who hold £30M of leases. We have the knowledge and experience that comes from supporting these customers which will help us to help you.

FCA authorisedBeing FCA authorised means you can be confident that all our leases fall within FCA lending criteria and have transparent terms.

Apple authorisedWe work directly with Apple and all of our Apple products are genuine and brand new.

Finance for new Start-UpsWe recently approved leasing for a Start-Up without an indemnity every day for a 90 day period – and counting!

Feefo Gold Trusted Service AwardCreated by Feefo, the Gold Trusted Service Award is awarded to businesses that meet the high standard. This accreditation is based purely on reviews of interactions with verified customers. As all reviews are verified as genuine, the accreditation is a true reflection of a business’ commitment to outstanding service.

More than 10K Macs
10,000 Macs have been supplied to our customers, getting them started or keeping them going, without the need to outlay large amounts from their cash flow.

5 star Google reviewsTake a look at our Google reviews and find out what our customers have to say about our business, service and support. We consistently received 5 star reviews from our customers and

Pure-Rental optionsIf you don’t want the option to cancel your lease or change your equipment after 2-years, you can take out a Pure-Rental lease.

Leases available over 2,3, or 4 yearsWe offer a range of lease terms to suit your needs, making it easier and more flexible for you.

Competitive insurance
Insuring computer equipment can be expensive and some insurers won’t even quote on high ticket items. HardSoft offer insurance that is cheaper than you might think.

Cancel after 2 years
If you have a Flexi-Lease you have the option to cancel your lease after two years, or change your equipment to the latest spec and take out a new lease.

Apple trained techniciansOur technicians are all highly trained and receive the latest, most up to date training from Apple meaning they solve any issues you may have quickly and get you back up and running as soon as possible.

Over the last 30 years, HardSoft has had the privilege of working in partnership with educators to understand how the latest technology we lease helps teachers unlock the full potential of their students. We’re excited at HardSoft to introduce the new Apple iPad, ready to lease, packed with powerful apps and a brand-new curriculum to help teachers ensure each child has an array of magical, technology-led and interactive learning experiences.

This FAQ-style blog answers some of the inevitable questions that will come with the recent iPad release and iOS 11 updates regarding changes to Apple apps.

FAQ: Apple apps changing in 2018

There have been a number of updates to; Pages, Keynote and Numbers for iPad to ensure users can take full advantage of the new Multi-Touch Display and Apple Pencil capabilities to draw and write within applications. The new ‘Smart Annotation’ Beta also gives educators access to an effective way to give students feedback. Pages, for both iPad and Mac, now allows both students and teachers to create interactive digital books that can include: Photos, Video and Illustrations.

Q. Do the new iWork Features work with older iPad devices?A. Devices that are iOS 11-compatible will support all of the new software features. Even without an Apple Pencil users can still select the drawing and annotation modes with their finger or third-party stylus.

Q. What’s the difference between drawing in Pages, Numbers, and Keynote and Drawing in Notes?A. Keynote, Pages and Numbers give users more advanced creative tools than in notes. You can now add textures when using the crayon, Fill tools to colour accurately, and select from thousands of colour options. Drawn objects are also directly editable, users can resize, change colours, and copy them between documents.

Q. What’s the difference between Smart Annotation beta and writing or drawing in Pages?A. Pages are intended to be used for content creation within a document like; Illustrations, a written label, or details added to an image. Drawing tools like Fill colour include infinite colour options which enable limitless customisation. Smart Annotation beta is used to anchor annotations to select pieces of text: They move with the text as the user works in the document. The tools in Smart Annotation beta are simpler and easier to use; making it easy to delete and alter comments and feedback after incorporating them or hiding them before printing.

Q. Pages has a new feature that allows users to create books. What’s the difference between creating books in Pages and creating books in iBook Author?A. iBooks Author has more functionality; more widgets, a glossary and e-book previews. But Apple is encouraging users to engage with and explore Pages as they have said more functions are coming to the App.

Q. Can books be published directly to the iBooks Store from Pages?A. Any books created in Pages can be exported as ePub files and published via a Mac by using the iTunes Producer app. The iTunes Producer app is available only on Mac.

Q. What’s new with GarageBand?A. There’s an all-new ‘Toy Box’ sound pack that is available with free ‘education’ sound effects. These include animals, vehicles and counting to ten in different languages.

Q. What’s new with the Clips app?A. Additional Live Titles, animated labels and stickers. It also now offers new posters for creating animated title cards, including; education-themed blackboard and notebook designs.

More from my site

Over the last 18 months, many major computer manufacturers such as Lenovo, HP and Fujitsu have started offering subscription services for new computers and technology but what exactly is in it for you, and what is this terminology they use all about? It’s something we’ve been talking about for a long time and is very much part of the HardSoft ethos and way of offering a subscription model for deployment and use of PC and Macs.

Here we explain these terms and acronyms which you may come across:

Technology as a service – TaaS

Technology as a service offers small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) the facility to combine their computer hardware purchases with IT services for a monthly fee. They are then able to utilise the service rather than employee their own IT staff, to cover things such as warranty services, and the option to replace equipment regularly without making large upfront payments, allowing them to keep their cash flow in place for the day-to-day running of the business.

IT as a service – ITaaS

IT as a Service a method of technology delivery that views information technology as an asset. It provides businesses with hardware, software and support on an agreed monthly fee.

Device as a Service – DaaS

Device as a service is where small businesses and larger companies alike outsource the acquisition and management of IT devices to save money and enable them to renew the equipment regularly. HP use this as their brand. HP tied up with Apple at the end of 2017 and offer the imaginatively “Device as a Service for Apple’ that allow iPhones, iPads and Macs bundled up with support and a DEP solution, plus Accidental Damage cover. Apple does not have its own scheme and the HP DaaS for Apple is only available in the USA

XaaS – anything as a service

Anything (or everything) as a service has often been used to envelop SaaS (Software as a service), IaaS (Infrastructure as a service), and PaaS (Platform as a service). Originally SaaS, this cloud-based on-demand services category has expanded to include anything that isn’t fixed to the floor. It’s the epitome of cloud computing, a veritable buffet of offerings which are utility based and can be used on a monthly basis.

Sound Familiar?

Does any of this sound familiar to you? Yes, it’s basically what we’ve been doing – and preaching about – for the past 30 years! It’s all about getting someone else to take care of the technology you need to use for your business, paying a regular set amount to ensure that everything is looked after so that you don’t have to worry about it. In a nutshell, HardSoft offers all of the services mentioned above within our leasing contracts. We cover warranties, technical support, replacement products, and renewals when you need them. It’s why we’re a ‘one stop shop’ for all your technology needs.